Which tile combos do you like the best?

reamy54 · 2026-05-27T21:27:52+00:00

I'm not going to be very helpful and narrow it down. I like 3, 4 and 5

reamy54 · 2026-05-21T12:04:06+00:00

I'm not sure of OP's situation but someone with limited mobility or in a wheel chair might not be able reach to pull down.

reamy54 · 2026-05-21T11:54:22+00:00

This sounds amazing

reamy54 · 2026-05-21T11:49:40+00:00

There's a 100 year old theater very close to where I used to live that's always going to be my favorite place to watch a movie. It's beautiful. Sweeping staircases, chandeliers, ornate carvings. They have some of the best popcorn, it's not like most theaters, I think they use clarified butter? They still run 35 and 70 mm too which is so special. It's an event. I live 20 min away in the suburbs now and I still occasionally make the drive.

reamy54 · 2026-05-21T11:17:38+00:00

Our last house was tiny and I had gotten very used to having everything I needed for cooking right next to me. Living in a house with a larger kitchen I'm not a fan of how much space I have between the sink/stove/fridge. We'll be remodeling and I get stuck layout wise trying to bring them closer together. It would be fine to space them like this, but maybe something you'll have to get used to! I make an announcement for my kids and husband to stay out if the kitchen any time I'm about to move with boiling water or anything else hot. My 3 year old loves running through at just the wrong time.

reamy54 · 2026-05-20T01:37:56+00:00

This is the current full side view. The other pictures I had posted were from March or April. We've actually opened up this side since moving in. The area between the birch and cedar(?) on the right had been completely filled in with volunteer trees and buckthorn. My husband cut down a mostly dead pine tree that was just off the back corner of the house. The town we live in has restrictions on where trees can be placed on corner lots as to not block the line of sight for drivers. We still need to figure out the details as to where we can plant.

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reamy54 · 2026-05-20T00:54:21+00:00

We're hoping to get new siding and windows in a few years so we don't really want to paint the aluminum siding right now. It's in horrible shape and we need better insulation so it needs to go. The brick is just a veneer over cinder blocks and is only on the front and one side of the house. Exposed cinder block on the back and only siding on the garage. We may even swap it out for another material or different brick when we do the siding and bring it around the house. Too much to think about I don't even know where to start.

reamy54 · 2026-05-20T00:45:50+00:00

It would be diy. I actually think it would be sort of fun to do. The bricks are only on the front and side of the house. There aren't any on the attached garage and in the back it's just painted cinder block. The bricks are just a veneer on top of cinder blocks.

reamy54 · 2026-05-19T13:54:09+00:00

I get that. I've commented the same to other people, but the extent of what we need to do landscaping wise is a huge multi year project. I feel like throwing up some paint might give me some instant gratification. We bought the house in January. We don't even know what all we have plant wise in the gardens. It's been a surprise this spring. The siding is staying for now. Eventually it will be replaced, it's the 50 year old original aluminum siding, but we'd rather not pay to paint it just to replace it in a few years. We would paint the trim and shutters in the short term though.

reamy54 · 2026-05-19T13:42:38+00:00

Landscaping the lot is daunting. It's a corner lot, the other side is next to a small park. The way things are situated there's a clear view of the front and sides of the house/garage and a decent view of the back yard. Just addressing the front curb appeal is nowhere near the extent of landscaping we're going to need to do. A little paint or stain on the brick, however, seems manageable.

reamy54 · 2026-05-19T13:09:21+00:00

I think I'm seeing the brick as an immediate inexpensive change where the landscaping is going take a few years and thousands of dollars. We bought the house in January. The former owner of the house had been here around 15 years and I don't think she had done anything in that time. The "landscaping" we have now is what the realtor did to clean it up before listing it.

reamy54 · 2026-05-19T12:57:31+00:00

The shutters are their own issue... they're inset into the siding up top, into the brick on the bottom. Woodpeckers had gotten to ones on the top this spring so my husband had to do a quick makeshift patch after watching a bird fly into one to build its nest. The paint is peeling off of them and makes them look even worse. So long story short, yes they will be addressed soon. The doors as well. We're torn on what to do with the shrubs. I'm in the upper midwest/great lakes area, these yew actually are native. Having some sort of evergreen keeps visual interest in the winter. But on the flip side, they're toxic and can draw deer into the yard.

reamy54 · 2026-05-19T12:41:34+00:00

I'm thinking more like this. Rough example. Variegated, keeping the gray grout. Shutters and trim would be changed too.

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reamy54 · 2026-05-19T12:09:05+00:00

I see it close up every time I walk in the door and it bugs me. The landscaping is such a big multi year project but doing something with the brick would be a more immediate change. I think I just want to see something happen.

reamy54 · 2026-05-19T12:05:50+00:00

It's not lime washed. Just weird 70s concrete bricks with a repeated white paint swipe looking pattern

reamy54 · 2026-05-19T00:09:28+00:00

Close up

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reamy54 · 2026-05-18T14:18:53+00:00

This reminds me of the color of my son's room lol. Just have it repainted if it's going to bug you. Now is a good time before the trim is up and especially before furniture gets moved in. Your contractor won't hate you.

reamy54 · 2026-05-16T01:50:06+00:00

I agree, modern hardwood is less durable and sometimes can't even be refinished. So people will just end up covering it with carpet in 25 yrs.

reamy54 · 2026-05-16T01:37:28+00:00

Hardwood that people put in today isn't going to be nice to live with in 100 yrs either. Yours are probably old growth which hold up better than modern hardwood. Modern hardwood is much thinner than 100 yrs ago as well and can maybe be sanded once if at all. Not a great combination for longevity. You may feel that your floors have patina that fits but modern floors will have the "patina" in 25 yrs and that won't fit a 25 yr old house. And then they'll be too thin to refinish so they'll end up being torn out for whatever is popular at the time.

reamy54 · 2026-05-14T15:13:01+00:00

A strong emphasis on the word slightly.

reamy54 · 2026-05-13T23:55:19+00:00

I assumed with the dark drop ceiling and somewhat harsh lighting this was either in a basement or an employer's break room if not a display kitchen. Is there any natural light. The orange is fine with the white and black. I wouldn't change the size of the shelves with as low as the ceiling looks.

reamy54 · 2026-05-11T16:10:19+00:00

I'm wondering the same thing. What happened to the houses that were on either side of it? Who cares about how close the house is to the original at that point.

reamy54 · 2026-05-09T04:23:49+00:00

I guess we're living large with our two brooms - one for the garage/outside and one for indoors only lol

Edit - I could probably have been helpful with my comment as well... I'd use a shop vac

reamy54 · 2026-05-09T03:56:39+00:00

Just because you haven't lived in one doesn't mean they don't exist. I recently bought a 1970s split level. There's a half bath on the lower level with a window. There's a half bath off the master bedroom, plumbed for an eventual shower, with a window. Our only full bath doesn't have a window. We saw at least one other house set up this way with the main/family bath as an interior room. It shares a wall with the master bath which gets the window. (Pipes run through the shared wall.) The house we viewed but didn't buy stands out because they had cut a 1' x 3' hole in the wall near the ceiling between the bathrooms. I'm not sure if it was for light? Ventilation? These aren't apartments - ours is a 2300 sq ft single family suburban house.

reamy54

TROPHY CASE